Palangkaraya’s famous symbol is the Batang Garing, meaning the Tree of Life. The tree tells of the belief of the indigenous people of Central Borneo that in the beginning human beings arrived as a ‘fruit’ of the tree. The original tree of life stands in a pot to show as if the tree had grown out of that pot. The name of the capital city of this province, Palangkaraya, means “the holy pot” in the language of Dayak Ngaju, one of the many Dayak dialects.

The Dayaks believe that the holy pot has created a living tree that bears the fruit of life which are man and woman, and all the male and female of each species. The Dayaks cremate their dead and store the ashes into the same pot from one generation to the next. The pots can be very big and also hundreds of years old. They believe that the spirits of their ancestors and families are there in the pots and every year, they go and celebrate for a month to release the spirits.

New life comes out of the pot and the first life was the Batang Garing. At one point the Dayaks believe that the Creator God had left them and abondoned them and the world was ruled and nurtured by a female god, called the Panglima Perempuan or the Female Commander, who had great powers and was a shape-shifter. The female god sometimes shape shifted herself into a hornbill and sometimes into a human woman with supernatural powers.

In the original version of the Batang Garing, you will see that the tree of life grows from a pot and hornbill birds are flying (sometimes sitting) at the top of the tree.

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